The present invention generally relates to a facsimile machine, and more particularly to a facsimile machine having an image memory in which the received image information is stored.
Conventionally, a facsimile machine having an image memory in which the received image information is stored has been proposed. In this type of facsimile machine, after the image information from a line is received and the received image information is stored in the image memory, the image information is read out from the image memory and recorded on a recording sheet by a recording unit such as a plotter.
In addition, a facsimile machine having the image memory and a redirection function has been proposed by Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 63-63278. In the redirection function, when the image information is transferred to the facsimile machine and the facsimile machine receives the image information, the facsimile machine redirects the received image information to a predetermined destination.
This facsimile machine operates as follows.
When the image information is received, the received image information is stored in the image memory. After that, the received image information is read out from the image memory and recorded on the recording sheets by the recording unit. When the received image information is entirely recorded on the recording sheet, the received information is read out from the image memory again and redirected to a predetermined destination which has been recorded in a predetermined memory of the facsimile machine. Then, after the redirection of the received image information is completed, the image information stored in the image memory is erased.
In the conventional facsimile machine described above, when the recording unit breaks down while the recording unit records the image information on the recording sheets, the recording of the image information is interrupted. In this case, even if the image information stored in the image memory is redirected to the destination facsimile, the image information stored in the image memory is not erased. Then, when the recording unit is repaired, the recording unit records the image information related to each page 95 stored in the image memory starting with the first page. After the image information related to all pages stored in the image memory is entirely recorded, the image information stored therein is erased.
In the conventional facsimile machine, when the recording unit breaks down while the recording unit records the image information on the recording sheets, the image information related to all pages must be maintained in the image memory in order to entirely record the image information starting from the first page. That is, although the image information related to some pages has been recorded on the recording sheets, the image information related to all pages is maintained in the image memory and the recording unit starts to record the image information related to the first page again when the recording unit is repaired. Therefore, the recording sheets are wasted and the image memory is wastefully used.